Literary Fiction – Page 23 – Trigger Warning Database

You Made a Fool of Death with Your Beauty by Akwaeke Emezi

You Made a Fool of Death with Your Beauty by Akwaeke Emezi

Feyi Adekola wants to learn how to be alive again. It’s been five years since the accident that killed the love of her life and she’s almost a new person now—an artist with her own studio, and sharing a brownstone apartment with her ride-or-die best friend, Joy, who insists it’s time for Feyi to ease back into the dating scene. Feyi isn’t ready for anything serious, but a steamy encounter at a rooftop party cascades into a whirlwind summer she could have never imagined: a luxury trip to a tropical island, decadent meals in the glamorous home of a celebrity chef, and… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

Homomisia
Racism
Slut-shaming
Nightmares
Suicidal ideation recounted
Alcohol consumption
Drug use
Grief & loss depiction
Death of a child from cancer mentioned (leukemia)
Death of a wife from drowning mentioned
Death of a husband in a car accident recounted, on-page (theme)

What the Wind Knows by Amy Harmon

What the Wind Knows by Amy Harmon

Anne Gallagher grew up enchanted by her grandfather’s stories of Ireland. Heartbroken at his death, she travels to his childhood home to spread his ashes. There, overcome with memories of the man she adored and consumed by a history she never knew, she is pulled into another time.

The Ireland of 1921, teetering on the edge of war, is a dangerous place in which to awaken. But there Anne finds herself, hurt, disoriented, and under…. Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

Grief & loss depiction
Death of a grandfather
Murder
Gun violence
Fire
War themes

Pretending to Dance by Diane Chamberlain

Pretending to Dance by Diane Chamberlain

Molly Arnette is very good at keeping secrets. She lives in San Diego with a husband she adores, and they are trying to adopt a baby because they can’t have a child on their own. But the process of adoption brings to light many questions about Molly’s past and her family—the family she left behind in North Carolina twenty years before. The mother she says is dead but who is very much alive. The father she adored and whose death sent her running from the small community of Morrison’s Ridge. Her own birth mother whose mysterious presence in her family raised so many… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

Assisted suicide
Infertility

The Last House on the Street by Diane Chamberlain

The Last House on the Street by Diane Chamberlain

When Kayla Carter’s husband dies in an accident while building their dream house, she knows she has to stay strong for their four-year-old daughter. But the trophy home in Shadow Ridge Estates, a new development in sleepy Round Hill, North Carolina, will always hold tragic memories. But when she is confronted by an odd, older woman telling her not to move in, she almost agrees. It’s clear this woman has some kind of connection to the area…and a connection to Kayla herself. Kayla’s elderly new neighbour, Ellie Hockley, is more welcoming, but it’s clear she, too… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

Racism

The Dream Daughter by Diane Chamberlain

The Dream Daughter by Diane Chamberlain

When Caroline Sears receives the news that her unborn baby girl has a heart defect, she is devastated. It is 1970 and there seems to be little that can be done. But her brother-in-law, a physicist, tells her that perhaps there is. Hunter appeared in their lives just a few years before—and his appearance was as mysterious as his past. With no family, no friends, and a background shrouded in secrets, Hunter embraced the Sears family and never looked back… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

Pregnancy
Terminal heart condition*
Death of a husband during deployment in the Vietnam War

*Context : The unborn child is known to have a life-threatening heart condition.

The Secret Life of CeeCee Wilkes by Diane Chamberlain

The Secret Life of CeeCee Wilkes by Diane Chamberlain

In 1977, pregnant Genevieve Russell disappeared. Twenty years later, her remains are discovered and Timothy Gleason is charged with murder. But there is no sign of the unborn child. CeeCee Wilkes knows how Genevieve Russell died, because she was there. And she also knows what happened to the missing infant, because two decades ago she made the devastating choice to raise the baby as her own. Now Timothy Gleason is facing the death penalty, and she has another choice to make. Tell the truth, and destroy her family. Or let an innocent man die in order to protect a lifetime of lies… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

Cancer
Death of a parent
Murder

The Silent Sister by Diane Chamberlain

The Silent Sister by Diane Chamberlain

Riley MacPherson has spent her entire life believing that her older sister Lisa committed suicide as a teenager. Now, over twenty years later, her father has passed away and she’s in New Bern, North Carolina cleaning out his house when she finds evidence to the contrary. Lisa is alive. Alive and living under a new identity. But why exactly was she on the run all those years ago, and what secrets are being kept now? As Riley works to uncover the truth, her discoveries will put into question everything she thought… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

Child sexual abuse resulting in pregnancy recounted
Suicide
Sibling with Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD)
Death of a parent
Murder

Once Upon a River by Diane Setterfield

Once Upon a River by Diane Setterfield

On a dark midwinter night in an ancient inn on the river Thames, an extraordinary event takes place. The regulars are telling stories to while away the dark hours when the door bursts open on a grievously wounded stranger. In his arms is the lifeless body of a small child. Hours later, the girl stirs, takes a breath and returns to life. Is it a miracle? Is it magic? Or can science provide an explanation? These questions have many answers, some of them quite dark indeed… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

Rape
Domestic violence
Suicide
Grief & loss depiction
Death of a child
Kidnapping

Men Without Women by Haruki Murakami

Men Without Women by Haruki Murakami

Across seven tales, Haruki Murakami brings his powers of observation to bear on the lives of men who, in their own ways, find themselves alone. Here are vanishing cats and smoky bars, lonely hearts and mysterious women, baseball and the Beatles, woven together to tell stories that speak to us all.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

Suicide

Kim Jiyoung, Born 1982 by Cho Nam-Joo

Kim Jiyoung, Born 1982 by Cho Nam-Joo,

Kim Ji-young is the most common name for Korean women born in the 1980s. Kim Ji-young is representative of her generation: At home, she is an unfavoured sister to her princeling little brother. In primary school, she is a girl who has to line up behind the boys at lunchtime. In high school, she is a daughter whose father blames her for being harassed late at night. In university, she is a good student who doesn’t get put forward for internships by her professor. In the office, she is an exemplary employee who is overlooked for promotion by her manager. At home, she is a wife who has given up her career to take care… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

Alcoholism
Depression
Pregnancy & childbirth
Miscarriage mentioned
Abortion mentioned
Bullying